Even for an Oscar-winning director like Ang Lee, adapting a book as well-loved as “Life of Pi” as a film was somewhat daunting.

What’s more, Lee filmed the movie in 3-D, giving it incredible textures. The book, by Yann Martel, and film tell the story of Pi, a boy who winds up on a boat in the ocean with a ferocious tiger as his companion. How he stays alive is quite the tale, one that Lee, whose credits include “Brokeback Mountain,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Lust, Caution” and more, tells well. He spoke recently about making the movie, which opens Wednesday, Nov. 21.

Question: Were you worried about taking on so popular a book?

Answer: Yeah, but I wanted to make this movie, so at some point I have to put fear aside to make the best movie possible.

People want to compare the movie to the book. I think the movie is a very different experience. I think the book is thought-provoking. It provoked a lot of my thoughts. I’d like the movie to do the same thing, provoke a lot of thoughts for viewers. I’m pretty loyal to the book in terms of telling the true story. I do what the movie has to.... I’ve done four movies adapted from books, because they’re great material. They’re better than what I can come up with (laughs).

Q: It seems like casting is really crucial in this film. And you went with Suraj Sharma, who hadn’t acted before, in the lead role.

A: When I saw him, it was like, yeah. It’s hard to say, visually, what Pi should look like. People have different visualizations of what he should look like. In some ways he is like a prophet, in some ways. It’s almost like a philosophical fable. He’s really like a character of thought.... He’s like everywhere. He can solve anything.

I wanted to find somebody, not a known actor. I searched over 3,000 kids in India, a lot of casting agents, go to schools and ask people to read. I had some description. After three rounds I saw the tapes. Once I saw Suraj, it’s kind of done. I ask him to do a scene, and do it again, with my direction. He just stayed in that situation. He’s a really great, raw talent. When you see something like that, it’s like, “God gave me a sign to move on with the project.” When you see the movie, it’s not like you have a vision in your head and find him similar. You start with that, and once you see the person you know you can go make a movie.

Q: How long a process is that?

A: Months. About three months.

Q: Don’t you get impatient and want to move on?

A: No, you can’t. You can’t. I don’t think the studio would let you do it, either, unless they see something solid. I previsualized the whole ocean part, 70 minutes of it, a cartoon, an animated movie before I made the movie. I had to provide them the casting tape....

Q: The tiger is computer-generated, right?

A: Most of them. I had 23 shots that are a real tiger.

Q: The 3-D is incredible. How do you keep it from just being a shiny toy?

A: I don’t believe it is. People use it that way. Just because people use it that way, because it is expensive, doesn’t mean you have to do it that way. It takes convincing of the studio. It’s very expensive. At first they didn’t want to go 3-D because of the extra, what, $25 million? That’s a lot of money. They see this as intellectual property for a studio. They didn’t want to go there. And I had to convince them, look, this opens up a chance. Look what this did to water. You really feel like you’re there. You can actually have people see through a big water movie without Tom Hanks (laughs). It takes convincing, but I have to provide a lot of evidence to get them to take a leap of faith.

I think it’s a totally legitimate artistic form in new media. Let’s use it. When it’s getting cheaper, it wouldn’t be such a problem. It’s very unfair to compare it with 2-D, because it’s really sophisticated. ... When it gets cheaper, a lot more people will be using it.

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